Noclip unearths footage of Arkane’s cancelled Half-Life game, Ravenholm

We don’t go to Ravenholm…

Sometimes, when a developer gets its hands on someone else’s IP, magical things happen. It’s a combination of new ideas and a familiar setting that really excites. Just look at Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas, AKA the best Fallout, to see what we’re talking about.

Oftentimes, those crossovers don’t come off, however, and we’re left lamenting what could have been. Like, say, Arkane’s canceled Half-Life 2 spin-off, Ravenholm. It’s a theoretically brilliant mix of the immersive sim maestros and one of modern gaming’s most popular universes.

But if you were curious about what Ravenholm looked like, Noclip – the YouTube channel famous for its deep-dives into how games are made – has you covered, with gameplay footage acquired during a visit to Arkane Lyon in 2020 to produce the documentary The Untold History of Arkane.

There’s a bit of Ravenholm footage in the documentary itself, but there’s a lot more to see – around an hour of gameplay – in Noclip’s latest offering, This is Ravenholm.

Yes, it’s rough in parts – it was just a demo Arkane made to show Valve – but Ravenholm does make you wonder how many potentially amazing things we’ve missed out on, doesn’t it?

Via Eurogamer.

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